UNCC’s football effort might never recover if dealt a gut punch from Judy.

The timeline Phil “Yadda Yadda” Dubois laid out for WBT today is much too slow — not to mention his intention to leave it to Rose and crew to make the hire. Early 2012 is just too late to prepare for a 2013 season. The very concept that “practices will begin in fall 2012” means that late 2011 is the absolute drop-dead date to have a coach and staff in place.

I’ve said all along — for five or six years now — that football for UNCC might work if it is done the right way. But it sounds like UNCC admin is already operating with a bad data set. It will take a solid year of grunt work and talent evaluation to make those fall 2012 practices have any meaning. Check out the South Florida timeline:

  • Sept. 15, 1995: University of Florida Board of Regents approves football.
  • Sept. 16, 1995: USF begins search for a head coach.
  • Dec. 3, 1995: Jim Leavitt named first head coach.
  • Feb. 1996: USF signs first-ever recruiting class.
  • Sept. 6, 1996: First-ever football practice at USF.
  • Sept. 6, 1997: First-ever USF football game.

jjThere is zero evidence that Yadda Yadda or Heavy Duty Judy remotely understand what it takes to do football properly. That first USF football class had 81 members. This is not basketball where you need 7 or 8 scholarship players and a couple of walk-ons to field a team. Botch this start and UNCC football will be crippled for years.

And on the specifics of the coaching hire, it simply has to be an experienced, successful Div. I coach. Has to be.

Sorry if that rules out celeb names like Mike Minter, who know-nothings keep floating at UNCC’s first coach. Minter was a nice NFL player, seems a decent man, maybe even a good preacher. Not remotely qualified to navigate that challenges of starting-up a college program and building a staff.

Niner fans need to step up and make clear that UNCC needs to maximize its chances for success by hiring a qualified coach by mid to late 2011. USF did a thing or two right — right?